1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet recording device for achieving image formation on a recording medium by ink-jetting using an ink which is curable by actinic energy such as ultraviolet rays and electron beams and to a recording method.
2. Background Art
In general, an ink-jet recording device for achieving image formation by discharging a non-curing type ink onto a recording medium using an ink-jet head is widely utilized. In this recording device, the ink on the recording medium on which the ink image has been formed by the ink-jet head is dried or fixed, thereby obtaining a final recorded material.
In such an ink-jet recording device, in many cases, heating is carried out at the time of drying or fixing operation for reasons such as an enhancement of the productivity. For example, there have been disclosed a device in which after discharging an oily ink onto a recording medium to form an image, a fixing operation by heating or pressurization is carried out by heat rolls and so on. However, in the case of carrying out heating at the time of the drying or fixing operation in such a way, it is feared that the recording medium causes heat deformation. Also, volatilization of the solvent from the ink is unavoidable so that a problem remains in view of the environment, too.
Also, in general, a piezoelectric system is utilized for an inkjet head as described in JP-A-2004-181643 (the term “JP-A” as used herein means an “unexamined published Japanese patent application). However, if it is intended to make a dot size small for the purpose of obtaining a high-definition image, an ink discharge nozzle must be made small. For that reason, there are frequently encountered such problems that the ink discharge nozzle is plugged and that the amount of discharge is not stable. In general, a lower limit of the dot size is approximately 20 μm in dedicated paper and approximately 40 μm in plain paper, respectively.
Also, as another hindrance, in the case of making the dot size small, as described previously, not only the amount of discharge of the ink is unstable, but also a possibility that a flying route is curved because of a small droplet increases, resulting in causing a problem in precision of the impacting position. However, image quality with higher definition and realization of high speed are always required.
Also, JP-A-2004-090487 discloses a photocuring type ink-jet recording device for recording an image by discharging a photocuring type ink onto a recording medium on a platen provided with suction holes communicating with the supporting surface of a web-like recording medium by an ink-jet head.
In the case of this photocuring type ink-jet recording device, especially as characteristics of the ink, it does not require heating and has characteristic features so as to meet requirements such as realization of high-speed recording on various recording media, formation of a high-definition image which hardly causes oozing, and less influence against the environment. However, the problems of a piezoelectric type inkjet head still remains, and higher definition and higher speed are required. Furthermore, in the case of using such a photocuring type ink and achieving recording especially on paper in which the ink is not absorbed (for example, resin films), dots are cured in a state that they are built up thick. Accordingly, in dots of a large size by a piezoelectric type ink-jet head, smoothness of an image on the recording medium becomes low. In particular, in color images, the buildup is conspicuous so that the image quality is deteriorated.